Extending the CGIAR Market Intelligence framework to the VACS crops

By Pieter Rutsaert, Agnes Mbugua, Moti Jaleta, Kevin Pixley

The Opportunity Crops and Soils movement, previously known as the Vision for Adapted Crops and Soils (VACS), focuses on developing efficient and impactful breeding programs for seven "Opportunity Crops", including: Bambara groundnut, Finger Millet, Okra, Sesame, Taro, Amaranth, and Pigeon Pea. Representing diverse categories - nuts, cereals, vegetables, roots and tubers, and oilseeds - these underutilized crops have the potential to strengthen food and nutrition security and build resilience to climate change.

An important achievement within CGIAR breeding has been the implementation of a common framework across crops and regions, systematically defining market segments and Target Product Profiles (TPPs) to streamline breeding programs and investments. The VACS Breeding "Market Opportunities" team adopted this approach and developed a roadmap to ensure a demand-driven focus for the VACS Breeding work. The integration with CGIAR also enabled VACS crop teams to access robust data management and analysis platforms such as Breeding Portal and GloMIP.

Following consultations with partners, 48 market segments of the VACS crops were integrated into the Breeding Portal platform, as follows:

• Amaranth - 5 segments
• Sesame - 3 segments
• Okra - 16 segments
• Bambara groundnuts - 8 segments
• Taro - 2 segments
• Finger millet - 6 segments
• Pigeon pea - 6 segments

This integration is a significant milestone in diversifying the crops and market-driven priorities documented in the Breeding Portal. The TPPs for VACS crops are now being documented in the Breeding Portal, beginning with those for Taro.

Efforts are underway to identify and use alternative data sources for area and productivity of crops where FAO data are unavailable. Potential sources being explored include:

• Government agricultural production reports
• Reports from relevant consortia and research partners
• Product Design Team meetings, which provide expert opinions

These initiatives aim to enhance the comprehensiveness and accuracy of data supporting the TPP and market segment definitions guiding VACS Breeding work and documented in CGIAR's Breeding Portal.

Resources

• Learn more on the Opportunity Crops and Soils (VACS)
• Press release: Launch of a new Global Partnership for the Vision for Adapted Crops and Soils initiative
• Blog: Training the next generation of plant breeders with VACS

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This work contributes to CGIAR Breeding for Tomorrow (B4T) Science Program through its Market Intelligence Area of Work.